Three tips from Chris Smith to to convert seller leads

Now that you have a full pipeline of seller leads, it’s time to win their business! How do you convert even the trickiest of leads? As shown in our most recent listings webinar, Curaytor founder and best-selling author Chris Smith has you covered.

1. Do you have STS?

To get more conversions, Chris believes any agent can leverage one easy acronym — STS — which stands for:

Speed

Tenacity

Scripts

In short, if you can be fast, tenacious and know what you’re going to say before you say it, you’ll be light years ahead of other agents in your area. Let’s talk about Speed first.

Speed

Chris starts by reminding us of a survey that showed if you follow up with a new seller lead within 5 mins, compared to even thirty minutes later, you have a 100x better chance at converting.

“In other words, you don’t have an hour or a day. You have a minute or two. Find a way to automate emails and text messages when you get a lead. Your job is to then pick up the phone to close the automated gap.”

Ready for another stat that will either bum you out or motivate you to get ahead?

44% of salespeople give up after one call attempt1… but compelling data shows that:

80% of sales require 5 follow-up phone calls after the meeting2

93% of converted leads will answer by the sixth call attempt3

In short:

“If you want to double your convos and conversations, you need to double and triple your outreach and tenacity.”

Chris goes on to say that Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are more effective days for contacting leads than Monday or Friday. Plus, the hours right before work (7-9) and right after (5-7) are the best times to call, if you are continuing to call after the five-minute mark.

Sources:
1. Scripted
2. The Marketing Donut
3. Velocify

Scripts

If your lead comes up with a response you didn’t expect, or one you’ve never heard before, it can be difficult to keep the conversation going in your favor. Chris isn’t the only real estate expert to recommend having scripts, but he is one of the best at coming up with effective comebacks for even the slipperiest leads. Let’s look at a few examples.

2. Are you using ARP?

The key to developing scripts — whether in advance or on the fly — is to follow a simple formula that Chris calls ARP:

You can use ARP to ensure that you don’t turn them off, but also don’t let them slip away. For example:

“Oh you thought this was an automated? I’m sorry about that. Did you know that automated reports are insanely inaccurate, though? Some of those estimates are off by more than 40%. I want to get you an exact amount, not one of those guesses. Why would you ever want to guess your value?”

Or, if a buyer calls you up, here’s another quick script that uses ARP:

“I just wanted to know if the house is still for sale.”

“Oh you just wanted to know if the home is still for sale? If you found it on [inaccurate website], it probably\ sold a year ago. Haha. What’s your time frame for buying?”

3. Do you leverage FBT?

Alec Baldwin’s approach is a classic. But have you heard of FBT? (via GIPHY)

We all know Alec Baldwin’s famous "ABC" — Always Be Closing scene and the most famous acronym in sales. But instead of pitching and then closing... Chris recommends closing throughout the pitch. He says you can do this by offering a repetition of FBT:

Feature

Benefit

Tie-down

In the following example, we’ll show how an agent can use F-B-T during a listing presentation.

Feature: “We’re going to put your home all over the internet.”

Benefit:“A benefit of this is that a lot of online consumers will actually find a home and want to see it the same day. People will come right then to see it. We’ll put your listing out there so you can sell your home for the most money possible, in the shortest time possible.”

Tiedown:“Is your goal to sell your home for as much as possible in least amount of time?”

In short, you want to help them understand the benefit, and then tie them down to the benefit being their goal. Chris recommends building your pitch around 4 to 6 F-B-Ts.

What do you know that we don’t?

We know that you’re the true experts and we'd LOVE to know how you’re tackling listing conversion in a world where leads are dialed in and savvier than ever. Join our our Facebook community, where we keep in touch with thousands of agents from across the country to share your insights!

Technology trends change frequently. These statements are believed to be true at the time of this article's publish date but are not guaranteed.

About the Author

Kristi Kennelly, former Broadway performer and corporate executive, has been involved in real estate marketing and mortgage technology since 1998 with a focus on effective marketing and sales strategies, communication and how to best leverage technology to get it all done. After spending nine years leading the marketing department for Interthinx, where she helped win Mortgage Technology Magazine’s prestigious 10X and Synergy Awards, Kristi rejoined the realtor.com® team as a national speaker.
For those interested in the Broadway career, Kristi was the youngest performer ever hired for CATS (she performed as “Rumpleteazer” in the Broadway, national and Los Angeles companies) and played opposite Matthew Broderick in How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. Kristi is married with one son and is a year-round Little League fan.